The Speaker Speaks to NPR (Pt one)

Boy, you've just gotta love House Speaker Paul Ryan.  He must really believe what he says, and how can you not love a guy who is so convinced he's right?

Ryan sat down with Steve Inskeep of NPR's Morning Edition, and the transcript is out. Let's take a look.

Inskeep asked about Ryan's priorities, and what the House tax plan says about the priorities, when you look at who wins and who loses. Here's how Ryan answered.

We wanted a middle class tax cut. We wanted to have a system that's more fair, much simpler. Right now the tax code is just chock full of special interest carve outs and deductions and loopholes. When you take away those loopholes, in exchange for lower tax rates and a broader tax base people who are very sophisticated who use all those loopholes will not have all those loopholes. But the exchange is lower tax rates across the board for most tax payers in a simplified system. By doubling the standard deduction, instead of 70% of Americans being able to fill an easier tax form, 9 out of 10 Americans  can fill out their taxes on a post card. So by simplifying the system that way and reducing loopholes, you can actually simplify dramatically and lower taxes across the board. 

Got that? The tax base is broader because (no explanation provided). And the 'very sophisticated' people who are using those 'loopholes'? They're middle class people who either have tax software, or an accountant, or a pen and paper, who file their taxes today. And again, there's that filing your taxes on a postcard, which is a ridiculous visual that he's been stuck on the whole time.

Ryan then talked about averages - which is fair, to a degree, because it's neither feasible or recommended that Congress try to come  up with a plan that will ensure that every single middle class American tax payer will save money.

The average tax cut for a middle-class family is going to be $1,182... This is designed to be a middle-class tax cut. I think the people who are concerned the most are some of the big businesses. That's where we hear most of the complaints about. But this is a middle-class tax cut, no two ways about it...

And then there was the math. As in

Here's  - just do the math. Instead of your first $12,000 being tax-free, as a couple your first $24,000 are tax free. You pay lower tax rates up the income scale until you come to the top tax bracket which is a million dollars. You have your child tax credit go from $1,000 per child to $1,600 per child. So things like that clearly produce tax relief for middle-income payers. 

So, how cool would it really be if taxes actually worked that way? Zero taxes taken out of your paycheck for the first $12K or $24K, then the right amount of taxes taken out for for each of the income brackets you move through, so that people actually have more money in their paychecks, and in their pockets?  Because that's what people need, right?  That's what the Speaker says.

Our goal here is to give people living paycheck-to-paycheck a break. More than half of the people in this country on the surveys show that they're living paycheck-to-paycheck. A lot of other people in this country are about $500 away from living paycheck to paycheck. So our goal here is to give people relief and to grow the economy. 

So, if that's the goal, why not make it happen? Why do we need to wait until the spring to fill out the postcard and then get money back from the government, which has absolutely zero impact on the paycheck-to-paycheck issue? 

Coming next - cutting taxes for the people who are concerned the most -- major corporations.